Debate over mercury in teeth and flu shots

It weighs the benefits of flu shots (flus and related disease are blamed for approximately 36,000 deaths annually), with worries about the mercury — in the form of ethyl mercury — used as a preservative in the shots.

From the article:

The Environmental Protection Agency and federal Food and Drug Administration have not set an exposure limit for ethyl mercury. The FDA says it’s continuing its efforts to reduce the exposure of infants, children and pregnant women to mercury from various sources.

The federal agencies have, however, set exposure limits for another organic and closely related form of mercury, methyl mercury – the type that comes from coal-fired power plants and is found in fish. They use that standard when estimating the safety of ethyl mercury…